Overwhelmed by refugees, the city of Munich takes the whistle

2 years ago

The city of Munich, in southern Germany, no longer able to handle the influx of refugees. After the arrival Saturday of about 13,000 of them, as many as the record of the previous week, the Bavarian capital has come “to the limit” of its reception capacities, said a spokesman the local police.

To manage the influx of asylum seekers fleeing wars and persecution and, especially in Syria, the city of Munich had requisitioned barracks, install residential containers and set up tents. But with the lack of emergency accommodation, the last arrived refugees had to sleep outside on the ground, in the night from Saturday to Sunday.

“Declare Emergency”

If the stream of arrivals has slowed this Sunday morning, the situation could change rapidly, prompting local authorities to speak up and ask the other cities and the government of Angela Merkel support. “Every train that can go with 500 refugees to another city in Germany allows us to avoid chaos here in Munich,” has said in a statement the mayor, Dieter Reiter. Horst Seehofer, the president of Bavaria, said meanwhile that we must “declare a state of emergency” and decide “the opening of genuine camps.”